"And in those simple beautiful movements I remembered what was really important in training; that consistency trumps intensity; all the time. That intensity is born from consistency. That one cannot force it, one has to lay in wait for it, patiently, instinctively, calmly and be ready to grab it when Grace lays it down in front of you."

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Kettlebell mass.

Reading Ferris's book and thinking about my bodybuilding days and high intensity training really got me up for continuing the mass gains I have been making in the last few months. It hasn't been intentional; this is what happens if you have nice long bouts of uninterrupted progressive training coupled with decent rest, recover and stability in your life.

Especially my upper body which grows like a weed if I just give it a chance.Everyone has muscles that grow easily others that are almost impossible to improve. I showed up with a decent upper body, started swimming almost daily at two years old, spent hours and hours as a pre adolescent surfing and paddling then got into gymnastics. Uh, can you say almost ALL upper body training during my most important developmental years.

Can't say the same for my legs which I trained far harder than my upper body in attempts to balance my physique with hardly much to show for it at all, PLUS if you stop loading your 'not natural' muscles they disappear fast. Having to stop squatting and deadlifting because of my back did not help my legs' cause.

But muscle's not that hard to grow, it just takes, like most things in life, more patience than most of us have. Contrary to popular belief, it's not heavy weights and low reps that build size but sets and reps. Volume builds muscle. That's why bodybuilders train for the pump. Because they know that whatever size they can pump the muscle up to with high tension exercises and short rest periods between work sets, they can eventually turn into 'real' muscle.

Muscle size that is there even when they are not 'pumped.'

SO today was longcycle day in the press and I thought about doing sets and reps of ten, the bodybuilders classic rep choice for a decent blend of both size, strength and pump.

BUT, I wanted use the 24 kg and really didn't know if I could do one set, much less multiples.As usual I would have to wait til I had weight in hand to know anything about how the workout would be.

My lower back was unusually tight this morning during my 6-7 am stretchout; not a great sign but also possibly the omen of a great workout as I have never pr'ed on days I came in feeling great!

6-7 am stretchout

really worked with Ferris's new hip stretch and MAN it rocks! The idea is to place the head of the femur towards the back of the hip socket and it has made an immediate difference in my tight piriformis and deep hip rotators . A big time saver too.

bretzells,lying hamstring strap stretch, up dog, down dog, back bends over stability ball ( this has been neglected and felt great to not only do again but work hard on.) stick shrugs overhead behind back stretches, hip opening squat.

felt solid at the end

Long cycle Clean and press

16 kg x5/5 x2

20 kg x5/5

24 kg x10/10

x10/10

x10/10

Man this was seriously serious hard! I had to really remember to go slowly and have patience. one rep at a time.Let it burn.

Just like the old days,lol

It really helped to have my Queen training right along side me, rep for rep.What great energy and so good to challenge her with something new. She has never done 10's with the long cycle and could really feel it working her in a new way.

SO much of Tracy's incredible muscle mass comes precisely from this combination of high volume workloads, plenty of tension and the multiplier effect of high acceleration forces in total body compound exercises! It's building muscle,burning fat and creating functional mass and movement strength all at the same time.

People say they want better biceps, do bunch of heavy high rep cleans and get back to me. These were two minute long sets and that a lot of time gripping the weight.

I really wasn't sure I could get the third set and was really to settle for 8's but got a nice surge of power and brought it home. Again, kinda like my old days. Back to the future.

And what a freaking pump! crazy in the arms shoulders upper back and forearms.in a good way of course,lol. But I was done pressing.

But not with arms. onto clubs.

Two hand arm casts

15 lbs x5/5

20 lbs x5/5

25 lbs x 10/10 x 3 sets

On short cycle days I am planning two hand swipes but on long cycle days it's the arm cast

Three sets of ten finished me off with my lats, triceps and mid thoracic muscles screaming at me.

Bodyblade laterals

3x10/10

just for fun ,lol but these things are as hard as you make them and they definitely were a perfect finisher for my shoulders.The blade is a carbon fiber reactive interia device which means the more force you put into the movement the more comes back at you.

It was developed for rehab purposes but I like it for shoulder arm work as well.